“Ohh Board” and other terrible ZBoard names that (thankfully) didn’t make it

The ZBoard was undoubtedly my pick of the show at last month’s DEMO conference. Over 75 companies each had six minutes to rock the stage and pitch their startups, yet none came remotely close to having the enthusiasm, confidence, and coolness of the ZBoard crew. But as a recently released list of unused names shows, ZBoard could have been a lot less cool….

“[My favorite was] ‘Electrobolt,'” says Intuitive Motion’s Ben Forman. “Blatantly and intentionally cheesy, I think this name would’ve reminded people of childhood memories of favorite toys. Also it has a Jetson’s-esque quality.”

Forman notes the “Ooh Board” was the least favorite pick of the bunch. “We probably thought this one up after a late night in the lab without enough sleep. We wanted to build a product that would make people go ‘ooh.’ A very stupid name.”

So why did the team finally settle on “ZBoard”? What does it mean? “The ‘Z’ in ZBoard refers to the Z-axis,” explains Forman. “When ZBoarding, the rider moves around the XY plane by applying force parallel to the Z-axis (down). We liked it because ZBoard works well as both a noun and a verb e.g. ‘I ZBoarded over to my friend’s house to play Fifa.'”

The full list of scrapped names can be found below:

techboard

switch

switch board

freeboard

chariot

8skate

switchdeck

skate-tour

hotfoot

electrobolt

skatepilot

dashdeck

flashdeck

switchboard

switchdeck

ingo

ingo board

ingaboard

propel

regatta

i-fly

momentum

o-mentum

omicron

the osiris

rawboard

gboard

the “q”

infiniboard

zooboard

zoomboard

ooh board

nemesis

marathon

muse

zipboard

jetaround

alicorn

phoenix

spectre

gaea

da vinci

aeolipile

martlet

pit bull

rising sun

no tech

question mark

So, which one’s your favorite? Personally, I have to say the “Da Vinci”–while making no sense–best represents the sort of pompous exuberance with which I like to wield all of my pricey tech toys. But “ZBoard” is cool, I guess….